Chandeliers in art

It’s been a while since my last blog post, Christmas interrupted my artistic endeavours however I’m back painting two new portraits and working at getting my Art foundation final exhibition piece online: my periodic table of identities but more on that another time….

Anyway, I discovered the artwork of Stephan Huber the other day and can’t believe I haven’t seen his work until now considering the similarity to some of my work. His works in wealth III of a wheelbarrow filled with a chandelier echoes my own chandelier artwork in terms of the symbolism of the chandelier, juxtaposition and the narrative conveyed; the huge divide between the wealthy and the poor that still exists in contemporary society as well as a metaphor for capitalism. While Huber creates his juxtaposition with the two contrasting objects, I created mine with the material in which I drew the chandelier and where it was placed, i.e. chewing gum and dirt on the streets of Manchester. With my work however, I was thinking more in terms of the contrast between something so simple and essential as eating between the affluent and the poor with the chandelier associated with fine dining.

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

It got me thinking about other artists who have used chandeliers in their artwork or perhaps have created their own and there are quite a few including most recently Ai Wei Wei who created the most incredible chandelier from bikes, Pipilotti Rist’s Massachusetts Chandelier, and Danh Vo’s work. I suppose the attraction of the chandelier to artists is not only due to their symbolism but also their beauty and shouldn’t all works of art have an element of beauty in them?